Duke Energy closing in on remaining Carolinas power outages after Tropical Storm Michael

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy expects to restore power by tonight to most of the remaining North Carolina and South Carolina customers impacted by Tropical Storm Michael late last week.

Less than 8,000 customers in North Carolina's Caswell, Guilford, Rockingham and Wake counties remained without power as of 9 a.m. today. Duke Energy plans to restore power to most customers, whose properties can receive power, by 11:45 p.m.

Crews have restored power to more than 1 million Carolinas customers since the powerful storm struck the region last Thursday ? one day after ripping through the Florida Panhandle, initially as a category 4 hurricane packing 155 mph winds.

More than 10,000 repair workers, including power line technicians and other specialists, have been working long hours in the Carolinas.

The largest number of Carolinas outages occurred in North Carolina, where damage to Duke Energy's electric system was widespread and extensive.

To date, crews have replaced nearly 800 utility poles and 350 transformers, and restrung 2,300 spans of power line. (One span is the length of a power line between two utility poles.)

"We thank all of our customers for their patience during the past five days," said Duke Energy incident commander Rufus Jackson. "It's been a challenging month-long period for our customers and employees, who have endured back-to-back historic storms. We appreciate everyone for working together to get our communities back to normal. We'll continue working as quickly as possible until everyone's power is safely restored."

Duke Energy asks customers without power to turn switches to the "off" position on as many appliances and electronics as possible. That step facilitates power restoration by reducing the immediate demand on power lines when power is restored. Once power is restored, the company asks customers to wait a few minutes before turning on those appliances and electronics.

Power restoration information, by geographical zone, is available at:

https://www.dukeenergyupdates.com/michael/carolinas/hurricane-michael-restoration-in-the-carolinas

Latest outage numbers can be found here. Information about how to report a power outage also can be found at that link.

24-Hour: 800.559.3853

SOURCE Duke Energy